| Tourney Name: | FIFA Club World Cup |
| Year: | 2021 |
| Other Titles: | FIFA Club World Cup UAE 2021 presented by Alibaba Cloud كأس العالم للأندية لكرة القدم الإمارات العربية المتحدة 2021 |
| Country: | United Arab Emirates |
| Num Teams: | 7 |
| Confederations: | 6 |
| Venues: | 2 |
| Cities: | 1 |
| Champion Other: | Chelsea |
| Count: | 1 |
| Second Other: | Palmeiras |
| Third Other: | Al Ahly |
| Fourth Other: | Al-Hilal |
| Matches: | 8 |
| Goals: | 27 |
| Player: | Thiago Silva (Chelsea) |
| Fair Play: | Chelsea |
| Prevseason: | 2020 |
| Nextseason: | 2022 |
The 2021 FIFA Club World Cup (officially known as the FIFA Club World Cup UAE 2021 presented by Alibaba Cloud for sponsorship reasons) was the 18th edition of the FIFA Club World Cup, a FIFA-organised international club football tournament between the winners of the six continental confederations, as well as the host nation's league champions. The tournament was held from 3 to 12 February 2022 in the United Arab Emirates.[1]
Defending champions Bayern Munich did not qualify as they were eliminated in the quarter-finals of the 2020–21 UEFA Champions League. The eventual winners of that competition, Chelsea, won the Club World Cup for the first time, beating Al-Hilal of Saudi Arabia 1–0 in the semi-finals before requiring extra time to claim a 2–1 win over Brazilian side Palmeiras in the final.
An expanded Club World Cup in China was planned to be held in June and July 2021.[2] [3] However, due to fixture congestion caused by the postponement of the 2020 Summer Olympics and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on football, the Tokyo Olympics, UEFA European Championship and Copa América were postponed from mid-2020 to mid-2021. As a result, FIFA announced in March 2020 that they would postpone the expanded Club World Cup to later in 2021, 2022 or 2023,[4] [5] before cancelling it entirely.[6]
On 4 December 2020, the FIFA Council announced that the Club World Cup, using the previous format, would be held in late 2021 and hosted by Japan.[7] However, on 8 September 2021, the Japan Football Association dropped its commitment to host the tournament, owing to the possibility of restrictions on fan attendance due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan.[8] [9] Numerous countries expressed interest in hosting the tournament as bidding was reopened, including Brazil, Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and the United Arab Emirates.[10] [11] [12] [13] On 20 October 2021, the FIFA Council named the United Arab Emirates as the host of the tournament, and postponed the event from late 2021 to early 2022.[14]
| Team | Confederation | Qualification | Qualified date | Participation | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Entering in the semi-finals | |||||
| Palmeiras | CONMEBOL | Winners of the 2021 Copa Libertadores | 2nd | ||
| Chelsea | UEFA | Winners of the 2020–21 UEFA Champions League | 2nd | ||
| Entering in the second round | |||||
| Al-Hilal | AFC | Winners of the 2021 AFC Champions League | 2nd | ||
| Al Ahly | CAF | Winners of the 2020–21 CAF Champions League | 7th | ||
| CONCACAF | Winners of the 2021 CONCACAF Champions League | 5th | |||
| Entering in the first round | |||||
| AS Pirae | OFC | Nominated by OFC | 1st | ||
| Al-Jazira | AFC (host) | Winners of the 2020–21 UAE Pro League | 2nd | ||
Notes
The matches were played at two venues in the city of Abu Dhabi, both of which hosted matches at the 2019 AFC Asian Cup.
| Mohammed bin Zayed Stadium | Al Nahyan Stadium | |
| Capacity: 37,500 | Capacity: 15,000 | |
Five referees, ten assistant referees, and seven video assistant referees were appointed for the tournament.[15] [16]
| Confederation | Referees | Assistant referees | Video assistant referees | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AFC | Chris Beath | Ammar Al-Jeneibi | ||
| CAF | Mustapha Ghorbal | |||
| CONCACAF | César Ramos | Drew Fischer | ||
| CONMEBOL | Fernando Rapallini | |||
| UEFA | Clément Turpin |
One support referee was also named for the tournament.
Semi-automated offside technology was tested during the tournament.[17]
See main article: 2021 FIFA Club World Cup squads.
Each team named a 23-man squad (three of whom had to be goalkeepers). Injury replacements were allowed until 24 hours before the team's first match.[18]
The draw of the tournament was held on 29 November 2021, 17:00 CET (UTC+1), at the FIFA headquarters in Zürich, Switzerland, to decide the matchups of the second round (between the first round winner and teams from AFC, CAF and CONCACAF), and the opponents of the two second round winners in the semi-finals (against teams from CONMEBOL and UEFA).[19]
If a match was tied after normal playing time:[18]
All times are local, GST (UTC+4).[20]
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See main article: 2021 FIFA Club World Cup final.
1 own goal
Mohammed Rabii (Al-Jazira, against AS Pirae)See also: FIFA Club World Cup awards.
The following awards were given at the conclusion of the tournament. Thiago Silva of Chelsea won the Golden Ball award, sponsored by Adidas, which is jointly awarded with the Alibaba Cloud Award to recognise the player of the tournament.[21]
| Adidas Golden Ball Alibaba Cloud Award | Adidas Silver Ball | Adidas Bronze Ball | |
|---|---|---|---|
 Thiago Silva(Chelsea) | Dudu (Palmeiras) | Danilo (Palmeiras) | |
| FIFA Fair Play Award | |||
| Chelsea | |||
FIFA also named a man of the match for the best player in each game at the tournament.
| Match | Man of the match | Club | Opponent | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mohammed Jamal | Al-Jazira | AS Pirae | [22] | |
| 2 |  Ramy Rabia | Al Ahly | Monterrey | [23] | |
| 3 | Matheus Pereira | Al-Hilal | Al-Jazira | [24] | |
| 4 | Raphael Veiga | Palmeiras | Al Ahly | [25] | |
| 5 |  Maximiliano Meza | Monterrey | Al-Jazira | [26] | |
| 6 | Mateo Kovačić | Chelsea | Al-Hilal | ||
| 7 | Yasser Ibrahim | Al Ahly | Al-Hilal | [27] | |
| 8 | Antonio Rüdiger | Chelsea | Palmeiras |
